The Opportunity of a Lifetime

Chapter 28 (Pete's POV)

I woke up to the feeling of being jumped on.

As I became more aware of my surroundings, I realized that dear ol' Brendon was sat on my back, hopping up and down, taking my breath with him.

"What- the- fuck- Bren- get- off!" My voice comes out weirdly, but its understandable since a tall ass man is using his tall ass legs to bounce on short ass me.

"No- thank- you!" he mocks.

I time his jumps, waiting until he's more in the air, and then I flip over and shove him off the bed.

"Oww!" He groans sassily, holding the back of his head.

"I warned you." I shrug. "Anyway, why exactly are you jumping on me in-" I check my phone, my eyes widening, "-four in the morning?!"

He scoots closer to me, looking at me seriously. Uh oh. It must be important if Brendon is serious.

"Well, I just want you to know that you can tell me anything, you know that right?"

"Uh, yeah, of course, Bren," I reply, confused.

"Good... So, you know you can tell me if you like a certain somebody, right?"

"Yes, Brendon, what are you getting at?"

"Pete... I know you like Patrick." He looks at me sympathetically. What?

My eyes widening, I'm quick to respond, "No, I don't like Patrick."

"You don't have to deny it. I won't judge you."

"Brendon, I do not like Patrick that way. Where are you getting that from?"

He tilts his head at me, now confused. "Uh, well, you're always with him, and you cuddle up next to him, and the way you look at him tells me you're attracted to him."

Is that really what it looks like?

"No, uh, I've just been with him a lot because I want him to know that I care about him..." my voice drops to an even lower whisper than it was. "...he never wanted to live past 23."

"He turned 23 the other week," he replies, understanding flashing over his face. I nod.

"The birthday party didn't go as planned... Let's just say the stripper we hired went farther than what was asked of her, and Patrick panicked. I feel terrible about it, but I don't want him to think its because I wanted it to come crashing down."

"Patrick would never think that. You guys are super close and have been through everything. He understands."

I just nod, changing the subject.

"So, why did you wake me up this early just to tell me I like Patrick?"

He opens his mouth to speak, but a different sounding voice comes out. I look at him, confused for a second, but then I realize the sound didn't come from him. I glance behind me and see Patrick standing there, an unreadable expression on his face. Then he looks down at his feet, running out before I have a chance to say anything.

"Shit," I mutter. Now he probably thinks I'm some creep.

"Go talk to him," Brendon says. I nod at him and sprint out of the hotel room, trying to guess where Patrick would go.

How could I be so stupid? I've went and screwed our friendship up even more, because he heard something the wrong way. Where would I go if I were Patrick?

I remember him mentioning a music room in here somewhere. He probably went there. I run to the lobby to ask the receptionist where the room is, and she tells me its on the main floor, and I run to where she directs me. Sure enough, I find the music room, and I quietly open the door. Patrick is sitting, back facing me, strumming random chords on an acoustic guitar.

"Patrick?"

He whips around, eyes wide. When he sees me he starts to smile, but then the corners of his mouth drops down into a frown, and his gaze turns to his shoes.

"Look, Patrick, what you heard back there... You heard wrong. I don't like you like that."

Confused, he asks, "You don't?"

I shake my head. "Brendon thought I did because I was always with you. I do love you, but only as a best friend. I care about you and I just wanted to make sure you knew I did. And... and I'm sorry about your birthday party, I really am-"

I'm cut off by Patrick's arms wrapping around me.

"Don't be sorry, Pete. It wasn't that bad." He chuckles into my hair. "Don't tear yourself up about it, please. And I do know you care about me. You're the closest friend I've ever had. I'm sorry I reacted the way I did. It just kinda surprised me."

I laugh, and I pull out of his embrace, walking over to the acoustic guitar he was playing. I hand it to him.

"Will you play for me?"

"Uh... Sure."

I sit down on a stool, and he takes his place in the chair across from me. He positions the guitar comfortably on his lap, glancing at me from the top of his eyelashes. I smile reassuringly at him. Then he starts to play.

I recognize it as Young Volcanoes, and then he starts to sing the words.

"When Rome's in ruins

We are the lions

Free of the coliseums

In poisoned places

We are anti-venom

We're the beginning of the end..."

The reason why I asked him to play was for several reasons. For one, it always calms him down when he enters his own musical world, where he doesn't have to focus on anything but the words he's singing and the chords he's strumming. For two, I really like to listen to his voice sometimes. Its relaxing. For three, well, I don't really have another reason. I just like to watch him move with the beat, getting into the music and making me want to dance around with him. Not at all creepy, right?

Don't judge me. We all know our Pattycakes is talented and you all would kill to be where I am right now. But the thing is, he's just a regular person to me. The same person he was five years ago, the same person he will be twenty years from now. And I like that whenever I look at him I think of home.